Investigation of factors affecting fresh fish consumption in Iran

Abstract

The present study has studied factors influencing the consumption of fresh fish in Iran. Information required for the study, included cost-income data of 38252 urban and rural households that has been collected in 2015 by the Statistical Center of Iran. Due to the nature of the data, first from the Tobit, Hackman and double Hurdle models based on likelihood ratio and Wong tests along with sign coefficients and their significance, double Hurdle model was selected as an appropriate model. Results showed that age, education and gender of household head, income status, living area and distance to the sea have a significant positive impact on participation (decision to consume fresh fish) and head`s age, head`s education, wife`s education, family size and monthly income of the household and the price index for meat and poultry have positive effect and the price of fish has a significant negative impact on the consumption of fish. So more awareness and expand access centers can be effective in increasing consumption.